Horror and comedy - it's the timing

I just realized recently that there isn't all that much difference between a horror screenplay and a comedy.

Both of them rely on timing, and if the timing is off, they won't work. That's why they are both so difficult to write. It's also why we've been seeing all those horror/comedies over the past few years.

Think about a joke you heard that you thought was hilarious. First time you heard it, you probably figured out the punch line about a half-beat before whoever was telling the joke said it. The punchline confirmed what you thought. And that's what takes something from kind of amusing to riotously funny.

It's also what makes something extremely scary--you figure out what's about to happen and, if it's something really bad, you've got a couple of seconds of dreading it before actually seeing it. It makes it even scarier than if the moment had come completely out of nowhere.

For example, I saw a movie a few years ago where a woman was staying in a hotel and noticed a peep-hole in one of the walls. The second she saw it I thought, "she's going to look through that peep-hole, and not see anything for a second, then an eye will appear, looking back at her."

Which is exactly what happened, two seconds later, and which caused everyone in the room with me to gasp. We all saw it coming, which made it even more effective.

A truly effective horror movie or a truly funny comedy rely heavily on timing, and it's difficult to get right. That's why the masters of both genres are so awe-inspiring. It ain't easy, and if it's even a little off the comedy goes from being a laugh-riot to mildly amusing and the horror movie goes from terrifying to kind of "meh."

Hostiles - a review

Find the info on this film here, if you're interested.

This is the new Christian Bale film, written and directed by Scott Cooper. It's a Western, much on the order of Eastwood's Unforgiven.

The premise is army Captain Joseph Walker (Bale) is given command of a detail to escort his old enemy, Apache Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) back to his old homeland in Montana before he dies of cancer. The story is Walker and Yellow Hawk hate each other, and both of them have good reasons for it, but Walker knows the Apache dialect, knows the territory, and is the only person for the job.

There are a lot of things I love about this movie.

I love that it isn't "quotable." There aren't any zingers or one-liners. There shouldn't be. That sort of thing trivializes a movie.

I love Christian Bale's understated performance. He was amazing. I love Wes Studi, as well, but that almost goes without saying.

I loved the way the film deals with raw, fresh, still bleeding grief. That's one of the most intense things about it, and made some scenes difficult to watch. Again, I loved it, even as I was squirming in my seat, wanting to look away but unable to make myself do so.

I love how the violence in this film was not gratuitous. You know most of the people who get hurt or killed, and each time, it resonates. Again, no quips, no one-liners. Just sudden, deadly violence that sometimes comes out of nowhere.

I love how the fight scenes and gun battles don't look stylish and choreographed. It's just people who have decided to try to kill each other. They ain't dancing. That's real violence--ugly and unpredictable as it is.

I loved the score, by Max Richter--understated or missing entirely for the most part, but rising to the occasion when necessary.

I loved how Rosalie (Rosamund Pike) could differentiate between Yellow Hawk and his family, and the Comanche raiders who attacked and massacred her family.

Some things I didn't love so much:

I wish more of the focus had been on the relationship between Walker and Yellow Hawk. I get the feeling earlier drafts of the script did have more of that but as rewrites happened the scope broadened until that became a little bit secondary. There's still a lot in there, but I wish there were more.

The very last scene--I hated it. To me it was the worst thing in the movie. I won't give details, but it's something that was inevitable, considering the events of the movie, yet Cooper's screenplay tried to toy with audience expectations to make it seem like it wasn't going to happen. It's just a missed opportunity, I think.

There's a story arc in the second act involving some trappers that I think was added late in the revision process. Certainly seems that way. It could have used a little more work, too. It felt like it was grafted on, almost like it was written by someone else.

Overall, I can recommend this one. I'll give it a B+. Had to give it a ding for that ending. Other than that, great film. Go see it.

Championship Sunday writing and football

I'm spending my Sunday working on my two projects.

Face The Day will be a full-length feature film, horror, about a world where humanity no longer rules the night.

"Showdown at Nebula 7" is a short film about space outlaws attempting to bust one of their buddies out of a space station jail. Yes, it's as silly as it sounds. Though my hope is it'll also have some depth to it that'll hit you in the feels. We'll see.

I'll be alternating between the two of these for the foreseeable future. I'll probably get through with the short one first--natch--and then focus my remaining resources on finishing the feature film. At this point I'd say I'm about halfway through the short film, and maybe a third of the way through the feature.

Of course, that's first drafts for both. They'll be rewritten several times.

I'm happy, though, with what I have so far. The words on the page reflect what I'm trying to convey, and I think they both read well. Maybe somebody out there will like at least one of them enough to option it. There are options available for grants, as well, for short films, and I'll be looking into those, too.

We'll see. I'm sort of working at a feverish pitch on both of them right now. Hopefully, I'll get done with them before my enthusiasm wanes.

Football predictions for today:

New England over Jacksonville: 20 - 38
Minnesota over Philadelphia: 35 - 21

So, we'll have a Patriots vs. Vikings Superbowl, and for the first time in its history the game will be played on one of the participants' home field.

Either way, I'm looking forward to the games today, regardless.

This is why I do what I do . . .

For the first time in a long time I'm actually terribly excited about a project.

I mentioned it here previously--Face the Day. It's a horror movie about the end of the world as we know it.

I've done the first act and reread it a few times and I think it's really good. Even if it is only a first draft. I'm looking forward to writing several scenes coming up, and what I've done so far reads well and I think sets the appropriate tone. There's a lot of action and a menacing quality with a mysterious threat that demonstrates how effectively nasty it is. Plus, a sympathetic protagonist and an interesting subplot.

For the first time I think I'm writing a horror movie that's really, truly scary.

Yes, I'm excited about it--so much so I sent what I have to a friend for her to read it over and let me know if I'm just imagining things or if it is as good as I think. I never let people read my first drafts, not even my friends. That shows you how excited I am about it.

I have some unexpected, weather-related time off, so I'm going to use that to bang away on this thing some more. I hope to make a good start on act two, and, at this rate, be at the halfway point by next weekend.

Nothing like making progress on something that matters to lift one's spirits.

A post about The Post

I finally got around to seeing The Post today.

I've never been a huge Spielberg fan, and there are lot of his older movies that I've never seen because I know I wouldn't care for them. I did want to see this one, though, because of the buzz it's getting, and because it looked interesting.

I really enjoyed it, I'll just say up front. Streep and Hanks were perfectly cast, along with all of the supporting players, like Deidre Lovejoy and Sarah Paulson. It tended to drag a bit in a couple of places--you would expect a movie like this to develop slowly, but sometimes it was a tad too slow. I think a big part of that was a reluctance by the editors to cut any dialog between Hanks and Streep.

Which is understandable, but still, it could have used a little trimming. Not much, just a little.

It poses some difficult questions--like, if you're a journalist who is dear, close friends with a powerful politician, at what point does that politician become "former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara" instead of your long-time buddy, Bob.

Even more--what if you find out that your dear friend is in on something that you find repugnant and, if he weren't  your close friend Bob you wouldn't hesitate to at least look into it with an eye towards writing about it?

Then there's the whole "freedom of the press" issue, which has been becoming relevant yet again.

There were still a couple of what I consider Spielberg moments--the ending, in particular, is done in the way that he likes to do his endings and I find it overdone and unsubtle. But I enjoyed the movie so much I can forgive him here.

I'll give it a B+, and look for Streep and Hanks to get nominations this year. Go see it. It's a fascinating story, and well worth your time.

MLK Day

I'm reluctant to get into my thoughts about MLK today, mostly because so many other people have said what I feel so much more eloquently than me.

Suffice to say, I am in awe of the man and his legacy. I am also aware that he was a human being, flawed and sometimes ruled by his emotions. This does not sully his legacy with me.

RIP, Dr. King, and may your dream finally, truly be realized. The sooner the better.

I've been mired in depression and despair over the past several days, for reasons I won't go into here. So, I did what I usually do when I get into that state--I started writing.

I've been unable to get Gorgon to come together so it's back on the back burner. I had two projects I had been thinking about working on for a while now, though neither of them were developed much beyond the initial idea stage. I couldn't decide which one I wanted to dive into, so I started a first draft of both of them.

This is without creating an outline or a treatment, by the way. This is the way I used to do it.

Both projects were inspired by dreams I had years ago.

One was a ridiculous dream that was so freaking silly I couldn't forget it, with a 'cowboys-in-space' kind of theme. I'm calling that one, "Showdown at Nebula 7" for now--I may change the title. It's going to be a short, though it keeps getting longer as I work on it. Some serious cutting will be in order, methinks. I'm pretty much sticking with how the dream went, for the most part. Hey, it works! Seems to work, I mean. Unfortunately, the dream was so damned silly I woke myself up laughing at it, so I don't know how it ends.

The other was a nightmare about monsters emerging from underground to wipe out humanity. I'm calling that one Face the Day, and it will be a feature-length horror film. This one will be significantly different from the dream I had, because the dream itself would not work as a movie. As I was working on it I figured out it could serve as kind of a sequel to Walks Like a Man, which is cool with me. It'll stand alone from that project.

And yes, I'm aware of the Angel City song "Face the Day." That's what inspired the title. If this thing gets shot I'd love for the score to be various bands covering that song in various genres--just that one song, over and over again, in a metal version, a country version, a big band version, a blues version, a rap version . . . you get the idea. Though without Great White's hair metal cover, which I thought was soulless and uninteresting.

I'm really happy with the ideas for both projects, and, as I've been working, I think "Showdown . . ." is calling to me a bit more strongly. I've reread what I have so far and it's coming along exactly like I wanted it to, so far. So, I'll probably concentrate on that one for the time being, jumping back to Face the Day when I get stuck on it just for a distraction.

I think I'll slip away to see a movie in a bit. I want to see Spielberg's The Post, though, holy bathroom breaks! It's two and a half hours long! I think it'll be worth it, though.

If I do see the movie I'll post a little review here.

First post of 2018

I guess I need to say something, since it's been 2018 for almost a week now.

I've just been working on rewriting some scripts and developing a package I can send to anyone who wants it for each of them. This will consist of:

• a query letter
• a synopsis
• a treatment
• the script

I'm writing a generic query letter for each project that I can tailor to a particular producer/agent/whoever just so I can get it to anyone who wants to see it quickly.

The synopsis is a very short--around 500 words or so--description of the project. Give the story in broad strokes, and don't forget to include the resolution of the issue the project is about.

A treatment is a bit more detailed synopsis--no more than five pages--where you give the major story beats and a bit more about the characters and more detail about the plot. Sort of medium-strokes at this point. But keep it short!

I should also mention that neither the synopsis, the treatment, nor the script should have any paragraphs that are longer than five lines or so. I know, people think that's ridiculous, but trust me--people who read scripts are busy. If they open your treatment or synopsis or query letter or whatever and see this huge block of text, they're going to stop reading. Break it up into chunks. It makes it much easier for them to read it, and, more importantly, makes it more likely that they'll read it.

You also need to come up with a log-line, a two-sentence description of the project. I've discovered that it is most helpful to come up with the log-line first, before you even start developing the project, so you can keep the scope and theme in mind as you work. It'll prevent you from wandering down blind alleys and areas that might be scenic but are totally irrelevant. You'll want to use the log-line in your query letter, and your treatment. Maybe write it out and post it somewhere you can see it while you work just in case you need a reminder.

On my hard-drive I created a folder specifically for scripts I'm ready to start showing around, with a subfolder for each project. In that subfolder is the script, along with the other items above. If I send a query letter to somebody I'll save a pdf of that letter in that subfolder so I'll have it, along with a time and date stamp.

Plus, I'm still developing my space-based horror movie, Gorgon.

So, I'm keeping myself busy, until the NFL playoffs get started, anyway.

How is your 2018 going so far?

A little something directors do . . .

If you're one of the imaginary people out there who follows this blog, you know I've said many times that film is one of the most powerful mediums in existence.

To help me prove my point, let's play a little game. Take a look at this still photo from the movie Alien: Covenant. And, if you're horror-movie phobic, don't worry--it's just a pic of two people sitting at a table talking. The scene is set on the starship Covenant.

While looking at it, ask yourself four questions.

1. Who is the protagonist?
2. Who is the antagonist?
3. What kind of relationship do these two people have?
4. What are their relationships with the rest of the crew?


After looking it over, I'm guessing you decided that the person on the left is the protagonist, with the person on the right being the antagonist, right? And you probably guessed that they aren't getting along very well, and the person on the left probably has a better relationship with the rest of the crew.

How the hell do you know that, though, just from a still photo?

Because the way Ridley Scott staged the scene tells you everything.

Here's the context of the scene:

Daniels (Katherine Waterston, left) is the first officer of the starship Covenant. Oram (Billy Crudup) is the Captain of the Covenant, and he's come to Daniels to explain his reasoning behind an order he's given that she wants to go on record as opposing.

Sure, Oram is the captain, and Daniels is his first officer, so why does it look like Daniels is the Captain?

For one thing, she's on the left, which is the side the strongest characters almost always appear on. Think of every Western you've ever seen--the hero first appears on the left side, bad guy on the right. Every time. It's something filmmakers figured out early, and have used ever since.

For another, Daniels is seated in a chair, Oram is sitting on a stool. It looks like Orem is visiting Daniels in her office, and normally the Captain doesn't go to someone he outranks--they usually come to him. Yet, here's Orem, sitting on a stool, head slightly bowed, as he approaches his first officer to try to change her mind.

You can tell from Oram's posture that he's the inferior in this scene, even though technically he outranks Daniels. This gives you an idea where they both fit in the context of the entire crew--Oram is shaky, not all that confident, while Daniels is comfortable and self-assured. You would accurately assume that Daniels has the confidence of the crew, while they don't quite trust Oram or think he knows what he's doing.

You got all this from a simple still photograph.

That's what I'm talking about when I refer to the power of film. Here this is just being used to tell a story. Imagine if a skilled filmmaker wanted to make a movie that would influence popular opinion, in the guise of making a simple entertainment.

It's kind of scary, actually. Fortunately, like every other trick, once you realize what the filmmaker is doing it loses its effectiveness.

It's still fascinating to watch, though, especially when it's a film by a visionary director like Ridley Scott.

Digging out, and working away

We've had a few inches of snow in my neck of the woods.

To many of you that seems barely newsworthy, but I live in an area where it doesn't snow much. So, more than a trace tends to shut the whole area down, and it looks like we've gotten a helluva lot more than a trace.

It's over now, though, and things maybe will start to return to normal now. I hope. I'm not a fan of snow, though it did give me an extra day off from work. No way am I going to try to drive on the roads around here when they're icy and slick and also full of other drivers who have no idea how to drive on icy, slick roads.

No thanks. I'll call in and stay home.

My script for the pilot for The Prince didn't make it to the finals in the Final Draft Big Break screenwriting competition. Still, a semifinal finish is nothing to sneeze at. I've rewritten the script and sent it out to a couple of agents to see if I can get some sort of official representation. Fingers crossed somebody likes it. Since it made it past two rounds of judging in a big time screenwriting competition I have to think that it does have something going for it. At the very least maybe I'll get asked for more examples of my work.

And congratulations to those who made it to the next round. Yes, I'm jealous.

I also splurged and paid a reading service to look over my horror screenplay. The feedback I got was honest if a bit blunt. It needs work. I didn't find any notes that I disagreed with, either, and the feedback was helpful. Honesty is what I paid these people for, and I've been rewriting it with their notes in mind. It's quite a bit better, too, now. As is my ego, once it got over the bruising. I guess I was expecting to get "It's perfect! Don't change anything!" back from these people. Not bloody likely.

And I've been revisiting Too Many Tonys, doing a rewrite on it with an eye towards sending it around, too. There were some problems with the story that I couldn't figure out how to fix until recently--putting it aside and then revisiting it later seems to have done the trick, as I figured out how to address the critical issues I had with it. I'm thinking it's nearly ready--I just need to read it over a couple more times, to be sure that I didn't throw the story structure out of whack when I made my changes. And to be sure that the new stuff blends in with the old stuff so it makes one, coherent story.

So, that's what I'm up to right now.

The Question, and semi-big news

First, my semi-big news: my one-hour pilot screenplay, The Prince: Cassus Belli, has made it to the semifinal round of the 2017 Final Draft Big Break competition.  I'm tremendously excited about this. If it makes it to the quarterfinals I may just die. But my corpse will have a big smile on its face.

The thought of maybe winning this thing, or at least being able to put "semifinalist in the 2017 Big Break competition" on any cover letter I send to someone with the script, has me thinking about something every screenwriter needs to think about: The Question.

What is The Question?

Imagine this: you're in a meeting with a producer. Someone big time who can get your movie made. She's impressed with your script but this is at a really early stage, and there are an awful lot of hoops left to jump through. The meeting's almost over when she asks:

"So, what else you got?"

At this point you need to have as many completed scripts in your pocket as possible. And have treatments handy for any that you haven't completed yet. And be ready to talk about them. Let this producer know that you are a serious writer. Not somebody who got lucky and came up with an interesting script once. She wants to know if you can do it over and over again.

That's somebody she'd want to do business with.

So, I've done a pretty significant rewrite of The Prince script, and I'm banging away on another pilot script right now. I've got a script for a horror feature that I thought turned out pretty well, and a treatment for a mystery that I'm pretty happy with, too. I'm going to be writing some more treatments over the next few weeks, too, just to have them handy.

I've also had an idea for a short film that's been driving me crazy--looks like I'll have to write that one just to get it out of my system. It should be interesting, though, and might actually be something I can get made.

So, when I get The Question, I should be able to give the person who asked it a full menu of choices. You want horror? Science fiction? A whodunit? Drama? Even comedy, if that's what you're looking for--I'm about to be in a position to write one I've been mulling over for years, looks like.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, that I make it to the next round. And always be ready with an answer to The Question. You never know . . .

What I've been up to, staycation edition . . .

I took this week off because it just so happened a lot of personal crap came up that I had to deal with, all at the same time. I decided it would behoove me to take an entire week off.

One of my goals for this week (other than getting to the stuff I need to get to and doing what I need to do) is to apply for a writer's development program at a major movie studio.

As part of the applications process, they wanted a film treatment. If you're one of the imaginary people who actually reads this blog you've seen me talk about treatments before, and how I struggle with them.

Well, I really wanted to apply for this thing. Which means, I really needed to write this treatment.

Over the past month or so I've been hammering away on it without any luck. I finally Googled it, to see how other writers have handled it. I came across Kevin Williamson's treatment for Halloween: H2O. If you're curious about what a treatment is and how to do it, I suggest you take a look at it yourself. I found this inspiring and educational.

Before, when I tried a treatment, I sort of condensed every element of the story down to its bare essentials. Which is not really necessary, and is actually quite tedious and hard to read. All you need to spell out are the important beats in the story.

It's important that whoever reads the thing knows how you plan to set up the story, so you need to go into detail about the first act. The reader needs to know how you intend to resolve it, too, so you need to go into detail about the third act. The reader doesn't need to know all of the details about the second act. Detail the Big Picture stuff, like the major setback that almost always has to happen at the halfway point, or any other major plot points. You're writing a mystery and your protagonist eliminated several suspects? No real need to detail how those suspects were eliminated, if they were red herrings.

But the reader has to know how you intend to handle the big reveal at the end--how the hero figures out who the murderer is, for example. You also need to give an idea how you're going to wrap things up. The button at the end, before the credits roll, which is usually where your protagonist comes to a decision or realization about something important only to him or her that may only be peripheral to the main plot. So, you'll need to mention any subplots along the way that you'll be dealing with there, but don't go overboard about it.

This was a slow, laborious process for me, but in the end I think it was worth it. I chose to write the treatment about a project where I'd actually already attempted a script, and I just couldn't get it to work. The main problem I had was the ending, which felt contrived and forced. I just didn't have a way for things to click for my hero, for him to figure out who the killer is in a way that made sense.

Writing that treatment, though, sort of forced me to see it in a different way, and a solution that was there in front of me the whole time sort of trotted out in front and waved at me and finally got my attention.

Will I be selected to participate in this program I was applying for? I doubt it. They probably have thousands of applicants and I don't really think I'm what they're looking for anyway. So, even though I sat down and applied the other day and uploaded everything they were looking for, I doubt I'll ever hear anything from them.

But writing that treatment was all the payoff I needed, actually. It'll never be easy to do one, but now that I have a better idea as to what writing one entails I won't dread it quite as much. And I'll be writing more of them, now, because I now see how they can be so bloody useful.

OK, Atlanta Falcons, here's the deal . . .

I've followed the Falcons since there's been an Atlanta Falcons.  Yes, for most of those years the team was godawful. That's why this is so frustrating now.

This is a team loaded with talent, on both sides of the ball. They should be great. But they suck.

And it's the same thing we saw in the Super Bowl last year. They play great in the first half. They stink in the second half.

This is nothing new. Remember a couple of years ago, a game they played in London against Detroit? The score at halftime was 17-0, Falcons. Score at the end? 17-18, Detroit. Falcons did not even manage a field goal in the second half. This, in a nutshell, is the problem.

Guys, it's called a half for a reason. There are two of them. Two halves = a whole game. Get it? If not, just remember this--when you got into the locker room at halftime, the game is not over yet. You got another half to go.

Anyway, I think I have about had it with this crap from you guys, especially since it always seems to be the same thing, week after week, and nothing is done to address it. It's like nobody except me even realizes it. Do what every other freaking team in the NFL does: make adjustments at halftime. Make adjustments at halftime. Make. Adjustments. At. Halftime. Make! Adjustments! At! Halftime!

So, here's the deal. You go to the Super Bowl this year. And you freaking win it  this time. I'll still be on board. No Super Bowl win and it's over between us.

It's for your own good.

The hardest part . . .

Once you come up with a believable motive for your story's bad guy you pretty much have your story.

However, coming up with a motive that is:

a.) interesting,
b.) doable,
c.) a problem for the Good Guys, and:
d.) something that can actually be achieved

is problematic.

In the old days you'd have a bad guy who wants to Rule The World! Not any more. People have actually thought about it, and it doesn't make any sense. What does it even mean? And how will having this doofus ruling the world change my personal world anyway?

Likewise, someone who wants to steal something valuable, like a lot of money or expensive artwork or jewels or whatnot. So? It's hard to get worked up about that sort of thing, these days, with corporate execs and politicians looting the US Treasury for billions and billions of dollars. We're used to it.

Of course, this is for those big, epic stories involving larger-than-life characters. More personal stories are easier. Someone wanting to murder you, personally, is something that would focus your attention, especially if it's someone who would actually do it. Likewise, someone stealing from you, or trying to get you fired from your job, or whatnot.

I'm sort of thinking out loud here because I'm trying to plot out this new project and I'm having an issue with what the bad guys want to do. One of the plot points is there is an effective costumed vigilante patrolling a particular area of the city, one who has demonstrated that he'll be more than happy to kick a criminal's ass if necessary, and he has the skills required to do so.

So, most criminal organizations would just move somewhere else, where this guy doesn't patrol. The hero doesn't have superpowers or anything--he's just a guy who is a good athlete and who can handle himself in a fight--so he can't be everywhere. This would remove the need for the guy. Which would effectively kill my story--I need him to be around and active.

Dammit.

*sigh*

I like this story. It's got a lot of stuff in it that I find fascinating. But right now I'm struggling with this particular aspect.

Also, I don't have an ending. Once I have the ending I should be good.

Oh, well. Forgive me for the fragmentary, incoherent nature of this entry. I'm just in the initial stages of world-creating and it's a difficult and delicate phase. Terrifying, to me, because as I get older I get more and more wary of spending my time on projects that have no possibility of going anywhere.

I'll get there. Even sitting here and writing this has started the creative juices to flowing a bit, again. So, if you've made it to this point of this posting, thank you.

Rewriting blues . . .

I realized about a week ago that my draft for Walks Like A Man just wasn't working.

It wasn't a good story. And, even worse, it wasn't scary. It's a horror movie. If it ain't scary, it ain't nothing.

Then, I realized something--my characters were entirely too reasonable, entirely too willing to do whatever was needed to resolve the situation. While this may be ideal in real life, it makes for one helluva boring movie. Especially a horror movie.

So, I've made one of my characters a stalker and the other consumed with grief and confusion about her feelings. Considering the weirdness of the situation, that's enough to trigger all sorts of complications for them. Which makes for a much more interesting movie. Many of the problems I was having with it straightened themselves out. The harder things are for the characters, the easier things are for the writer.

Of course, this also screws up a lot of stuff in the draft that I need to change, but that's why it's called rewriting, isn't it?

So, I'm hammering away on the rewrite, and I feel pretty good about it as an idea. I just need to tighten up the story.

On an unrelated matter, I got the Blu Ray of Alien: Covenant this week. I've already rewatched it three or four times. I saw it in the theater twice and would have seen it a third time if I could have found the time to get out there.

I guess that's my way of saying I dug the movie. Is it perfect? No. I think the script could have used another one or two passes because some things didn't look to be blended in with the whole. They were obviously late additions. It looks like some story lines that were initially intended to be a big part of the film were later dropped but the script wasn't rewritten to account for them. I also get a bit tired of all the unsubtle reminders that all of the crew are couples--we get it, they're married. Just one or two "my wife" references would have been sufficient.

All said, though, I enjoy it. I do like the characters. Since it's a Ridley Scott film it is a visual treat. Dariusz Wolski's lighting is amazing--gorgeous and evocative. Jed Kurzel's score borrows a lot from the first film, but when it needs to become something in it's own right it is more than adequate to the task. Get the Blu Ray and watch all the extras, and listen to Ridley Scott's commentary.

For those who say the story is unsatisfying, I'd have to say that the story is not complete. There will (hopefully) be at least one more film. I'd like to give the series a chance to finish before evaluating the whole thing. I guess as a writer I can see what they're setting up for the next one, and trust me, it's going to be epic. You will not want to miss it.

One thing I'll add here, and I may be totally off my rocker--I think the Blade Runner film coming out soon will tie in with this series somehow. Maybe I'm completely crazy, but I think the story-line in Alien involving the synthetics will somehow create a tie-in with it.

I think a lot of people who were so disappointed in the film were expecting it to be like Alien. Guess what? It won't be. It can't be. That can never happen again. That's the nature of horror films. If you want to see Alien, then see Alien. It's on Amazon Prime. In the mean time see this as a series of films on their own merits.

One suggestion I'd have for the filmmakers for the next one, if I may--cut the budget in half. One of the things that made the first film so urgent and interesting was the fact that they didn't have an adequate budget to do the things one normally does for something like that, like fabricating sets and the like. They had to make do and improvise. Which created a fascinating setting that had never been seen before and added so much believability to the film. Which, in turn, made it that much more terrifying--the Nostromo looks like an aging bucket of bolts that people have been living and working in for years. In Prometheus and Covenant I think Ridley Scott had a lot more money to play around with and it shows, in good ways with the excellent production values, but also in bad ways, where the sense of urgency is missing.

I'll admit, though, that I'm a die-hard Alien fan. It'll take an awful lot for me to turn against these movies.

Now, back to rewriting my own horror movie.

Favorite movie rewatching event!

I've decided it's time to watch my top five favorite movies again this weekend.

This time, though, I've decided to be logged onto Twitter while I do so, sharing any thoughts I may have as I watch. Feel free to follow along and offer your opinions or wiseass remarks as you see fit--my Twitter handle is @jfranklinevans.

I'll start sometime Saturday afternoon, watching two movies, then I'll finish with the other three on Sunday afternoon. I can't give specific times because I have other stuff to do and also I want to get some work done on this horror script. I'll send out a Tweet about twenty minutes or so before I start watching, to give a heads up.

Movies I'm going to watch, in the order I'm going to watch them:

Saturday

5. John Carpenter's The Thing (#TheThingRewatch)
4. Citizen Kane (#CitizenKaneRewatch)

Sunday

3. Casablanca (#CasablancaRewatch)
2. The Sixth Sense (#TheSixthSenseRewatch)
1. Alien (#AlienRewatch)

The version of Alien I'm going to watch is the original 1979 release, not the 2003 director's cut. I love them both, but I think I prefer the original slightly ahead of Ridley Scott's recut.

Anyways, if you're interested, feel free to follow along and chime in!

What I've been doing lately

I know it's been a while. For the one or two of you who maybe care, this is what I've been doing over the past few weeks:

I finished a preliminary draft for a horror movie called Walks Like A Man. If you're interested, it was inspired by one of my own songs of the same title--you can hear it by visiting my ReverbNation page. Feel free to listen to any other tunes while you're there.

Anyway, the story in my little song is a part of the bigger story I'm trying to tell in the script, and actually I'm pretty excited about it. More excited now, actually, than I was when I began this project.

Why, you may ask? Because the final image in the movie came to me yesterday while I was sitting here struggling with the rewrite.

In horror movies the ending is all important. Think about the horror movies that disappointed you. Think about your reaction when the end credits rolled. That's it? That's all? That's my most common reaction to a movie that I wind up not caring for. It's because, in the end, there is no lasting image, no impression, nothing at all to haunt you after the movie is over.

This is something a lot of newer horror movies struggle with. I've seen some where the movie just . . . stopped. There was no attempt at any kind of ending. My guess is the writer is hoping to finish the story with a sequel, but unless you've got a deal in pocket already for something like that, chances are you won't ever get it made.

Why?

Because the audience for the first movie was disappointed.

Why?

Because of the ending. Or lack thereof.

Or we are left with an image of the monster/serial killer/whatever who is not actually dead, though our cast went through a great deal of trouble killing him/her/it and thought they had succeeded. This may have worked for Halloween but it probably won't work for many other films. Don't assume that you have reached that level. I certainly don't.

The ending has to make sense in the context of the story you just told, but it also should reveal that the horror is still ongoing--maybe there's a dimension to the creature or person or whatever that was hinted at in the film but nobody paid enough attention to it and now it's allowing the story to continue.

So, it has to make sense. It can't just come completely out of the blue. It also has to be surprising, or horrifying. You can make do with satisfying but that's the least preferable of the alternatives--see Jordan Peele's otherwise excellent Get Out.

Anyway, all that is a way of saying that the image my little script will leave the audience with excites me and encourages me to hone this baby down to a razor's edge. The image I'm working on makes sense in the context of the movie, but now the plan is to get it to make even more sense, make it even more significant. Even more horrifying.

Yes. This is why we do what we do, ain't it?

It Comes At Night (spoiler free)

I just saw this film at the theater today.

I've wanted to see this since I first heard about it, some months ago, and one reason is because of the studio, A24, which has put out a string of interesting, quirky, and effective movies (like least year's Best Picture winner, Moonlight, as well as The Witch--both of which I have in my personal Blu Ray collection and can recommend to you as excellent films).

A word of warning--it's not quite the movie the ad campaign makes it out to be. It's not a typical horror film. It's much more subtle than that, but at the same time, a lot more brutal in the emotions it conveys. It's the darkest movie, tonally, I've seen in a long time.

The basic plot involves a family of good people--not ex-military special ops, not law enforcement, nothing particularly bad ass--trying to survive in a terrible situation. They do what they feel like they have to do, to survive. Some decisions they make aren't good but, again, they do what they think is best. Society as we know it is dead and they're left on their own.

The rumor is the screenwriter/director Trey Edward Shults was grieving the loss of his father when he wrote the screenplay, and it shows. Grief permeates this film. Not the scarred over, still achy on rainy days kind of grief. This is the bleeding, raw, fresh, throbbing, exposed kind grief of someone who has just recently experienced a loss that, to them, makes going on living seem to be the worst possible fate. This film is personal to Shults--he ripped the freshly-applied bandage off the wound to show it to the world. I think it was cathartic for him to make it, and it's cathartic for us to watch it.

The cast is dead-solid perfect, especially Joel Edgerton (Paul). Edgerton also has an executive producer credit.

I'm glad I saw this movie. Having said that, it's not the kind of movie I'll see again. I recommend it to you after reminding you one more time--it's really dark. Not the usual horror movie kind of dark, either. Dark in an existential way that may be a little too effective at conveying the emotion the filmmakers want to convey.

I give it a solid A. Go see it. And go see any other A24 movies that you can find, too. You will not regret it.

On getting older and analysis paralysis

I'm having trouble deciding on a new project.

That's not the only thing I'm having problems with, but everything else seems to have, at its root, the same cause.

As I get older I become keenly aware of the passage of time, and I begrudge any wasting of it. Which, paradoxically, results in me wasting more time. For example--I don't want to start on a project, spend months hammering away on it, only to abandon it because it's not going anywhere. So, I spend more and more time trying to decide what to work on next instead of actually working on something.

This wasn't an issue when I was younger because I felt like I was going to live for eons. Now, I really doubt I'll be alive ten years from now. As a consequence, I don't want to spend the time I have remaining spinning my wheels. Which means I'm spending a lot of time indulging in wheel spinning.

When I was younger, ten years was an eternity. Now, it's nothing. A blink of an eye. Up and gone before you know it.

Ten years isn't a lot of time when it comes to making movies. Even if funding isn't an issue it still takes a good two years to put something out. Which means if I get busy now and get successful now I may leave this world with five movies to my credit.

Of course, I'll be lucky to get one movie made. It's the thought that counts, and there's nothing like putting something in perspective to scare the crap out of yourself.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I guess I'm just talking to myself, especially since nobody reads these things anyway.

At the moment I have an idea for a drama that I'm pretty excited about, and I think it'll result in a thoughtful, provocative movie that people would want to see, if I can get it made. But I haven't committed to it yet. I'm still toying with the basic idea and trying to decide on the specifics, especially for the ending. I don't even have a title.

We'll see if it amounts to anything. Hopefully it won't take very long for me to make up my mind about it and get started writing it. Or, you know, not.

Time is wasting, you know.

New video! Quick update

I just uploaded a new video to You Tube.

This one features the vocal talents of my goddaughter, Talyan, in addition to yours truly. It also gave me a chance to fool around with CGI. I hope you get a chuckle out of it.

I finally saw Alien: Covenant (spoilers) . . .

Life has been kind of hectic over the past couple of weeks and it's been difficult to find a couple of hours to sneak out to my local theater to catch the latest entry in the Alien franchise.

That changed today. I've now seen it, and my thoughts are below. It'll contain spoilers. You have been warned.

A bit like Prometheus, Covenant started out with some genre identity issues, but, unlike Prometheus, those were settled by the end of the first act. Yes, this is a horror movie, even though it started out as a straight action/adventure scifi flick.

Fans of the Alien and Aliens will spot many callbacks to the previous films, and there are several musical cues taken directly from Jerry Goldsmith's score for the first one. There are also quite a few callbacks to Prometheus in the score, which I thought were nicely done.

There isn't a sense of foreboding that the first movie evoked, a feeling that we are venturing into the unknown. Instead, it begins with a sense of optimism, then panic as the accident that begins the whole sequence of events occurs.

Covenant is a colonial vessel on its way to settle a world that is suspected to be habitable. She carries a crew of fifteen, as well as two thousand colonists asleep in stasis, and another fifteen hundred or so embryos frozen for the trip. A random stream of neutrinos from a nearby star hits the ship while the sails she uses to recharge her power supply are deployed, causing an overload in some of her systems. In the ensuing power surge forty-seven colonists are killed in their stasis pods, as well as the mission's captain, Branson (James Franco). He dies horribly, awake in his pod but unable to escape, as he's burned to death while his wife, Daniels (Katherine Waterson) watches.

I've heard a bit of stir about casting Franco in this role instead of a relatively unknown actor, since he's only actually in the movie for less than a minute. However, I disagree, and think it was a wise choice--using a recognizable actor gives his death more heft, making Daniels's grief more palpable and real.

As they make their repairs they intercept a signal from a nearby system--it's a woman singing John Denver's "Country Roads." When they pinpoint the source of the signal it turns out to be a world that is an even better candidate for colonization than their original destination. The new captain, Oram (Billy Cruddup), decides to change their mission to investigate.

A bit is made in the script that Oram is devoutly religious, though it doesn't go into details as to what his faith actually is. Not much more is made of his beliefs beyond the mention near the beginning, and at first I thought that was an oversight. Now that I've thought about it, though, I don't think so--I think the actual specifics of Oram's beliefs are not really necessary to the plot, it's only necessary that he has them. 

This ties into the themes the new series of movies has been exploring, of creation. This is brought into clear focus when Covenant arrives at the source of the transmission and discovers the sole survivor of the Prometheus mission there--the android David. David has been busy while he's been stuck on this world for the last ten years, experimenting with the black goo that first appeared in Prometheus. And what happened to Noomi Rapace's character, Shaw, who was with David on the Engineer's ship they used to escape at the end of the previous movie?

Shaw repaired David, reattaching his head to his body after it had been ripped apart in the earlier movie. For her pains David used her as source material in his black goo experiments, eventually creating the face huggers we all know so well.  With her DNA he was able to create an organism that was fully capable of infesting and gestating in human hosts.

A complaint with the movie has been the scientists and security people act, well, stupid, and I can't refute that. Landing on an alien world, even one with a breathable atmosphere and what appear to be earth-type flora, would still require one to wear a hazmat suit, at least initially. And exposure to alien spores--another way the goo works to infect a host--would result in immediate quarantine.

The gestation period for (what I'm calling) the prexenomorphs is out of whack, too--it'd take longer than a few minutes for something to grow from a collection of spores or even an implanted embryo to something large enough to emerge from the host body at the size of these creatures.  But I'm willing to let that one go, just so the story can move along.

I've also encountered many complaints about the ending being "predictable." Well, yes, it was. However, there's going to be at least one more of these movies. Think about that ending again, and remember that the next one is going to be called Alien: Awakening.

That promises, in light of where this one wound up, to be horrifying and epic and well worth the wait.

Overall, I'll give it a B+. The stupidity of the scientists was a little too convenient, and the editing was a little choppy in a couple of places, but overall I found it to be quite watchable and interesting. I'll be getting the DVD when it's available and I'm looking forward to the next one more than ever.